Sorrow

Sorrow Harbinger

Sorrow Brightside was a 25 year old trapeze artist who was a lifetime Witchlight Carnival performer until tragedy forced her down a different path.

Early Life

Sorrow Harbinger, a name whispered with a mix of awe and trepidation, wasn't always synonymous with vengeance. For the first two decades of her life, she was known as "Sky Dancer," the dazzling star of the nomadic Witchlight Carnival's aerial acrobatics performers. Her disregard for her own safety enabled her to perform death defying feats of acrobatics. Her laughter rang out under the big top, as bright and carefree as the glittering purple dust that rained down during her breathtaking performances. She was a spectacle, a whirlwind of grace and daring, captivating audiences with her seemingly impossible feats high above the sawdust ring. She was born into the carnival, quite literally. Her mother, Ezra, was a fortune teller with purple eyes, and her father, Calus, was the carnival's lion tamer, a giant man with a booming laugh. The Witchlight was her family, her home, her entire world, all she knew. She grew up playing behind the scenes at the carnival and learned to walk on the tightrope before she could even walk on solid ground. Her lullabies were the creaks of the caravan wagons and the distant calliope music. Her life among the Witchlight performers was one of perpetual motion, travel, and camaraderie. She learned how to handle the animals from her father, she learned juggling from the clowns, sleight of hand from the illusionists, and the art of charming smiles from everyone. But her true passion was the trapeze. She was a natural but still spent hours practicing and pushing her body to its limits, striving for perfection in every twist and tumble. She loved the freedom of soaring through the air, the feeling of weightlessness, the roar of the crowd.

Then, the shadows fell.

The Crimson Hand

A traveling troupe, calling themselves the "Crimson Hand," arrived at the Witchlight Carnival. They weren't performers; they were predators. Under the guise of admiration for the carnival's artistry, they infiltrated the community, observing, plotting. One moonless night, they struck. They weren't after coin or jewels; they sought something far more precious: the carnival's unique magical artifacts, relics of forgotten fey magic that empowered the Witchlight's enchantments. In the chaos of the raid, Sorrow's parents, Ezra and Calus, were murdered, along with many other members of her Witchlight family. Sorrow was performing late that night at a bar in a nearby town and returned to find her home shattered, her family gone, and the magic that sustained Witchlight stolen. The vibrant colors of her world were replaced with the bleak gray of grief and she withdrew. Consumed by a rage so profound it chilled her to the bone, Sorrow emerged and vowed to avenge the fallen and to hunt down every member of the Crimson Hand involved as well as retrieve the stolen Witchlight artifacts. She adopted the last name "Harbinger," a stark reminder of what she had lost and the vengeance she would bring to those involved. She left the ruins of the Witchlight behind, her heart a burning ember of sorrow and fury. She was able to salvage one of the carnival wagons her father used to transport Leonid, the biggest lion they owned. She converted the wagon into her mobile living quarters and home base. While she still possesses the agility and grace of her trapeze training, but her movements now carry a deadly precision. Some who have witnessed her combat style likened it to “death by a thousand cuts”. She appears out of nowhere strikes and disappears just as fast. She now travels the land, a lone shadow in search of anyone affiliated with the Crimson Hand, her laughter replaced by a grim determination, her heart set on justice, or perhaps, something darker. Sky Dancer is gone, replaced by the silent, deadly Sorrow Harbinger, and the world now knows her as a very different type of performer.